Ex-Halliburton Worker posts on DU - "I Am David A. Smith"

[mia]

I found the post from CorpGovActivist (David A. Smith)very informative. It deserves it's own thread.


Ex-Halliburton Worker Calls for Probe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2525814

Sabra -

Thank you for posting the AP story here.

To see the SEC filing I made: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1269476/00012694...

To see the full text of the letter I sent to Capitol Hill lawmakers (referenced in the AP story and the SEC filing): http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/092006senateinves.

..

Please stay tuned to my new sites: http://www.HALwhistleblowers.org and http://www.BushBunglesBrigade.org .

Warmest regards,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton)

P.S. To see how key the "other" David Smith is to the Cheney/Lesar "leadership" cabal at Halliburton, see his employment contract, and the latest Halliburton annual report:

* Employment contract, signed during Cheney's tenure as CEO: http://contracts.onecle.com/halliburton/smith.emp.1998....

* Latest annual report (see under the heading, "Executive Officers of the Registrant," on page 10): http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/0000045012...

Thanks again for posting this here.

[BeHereNow]

1. LOL!!! That is TOO wonderful~

FINALLY, FINALLY the truth is seeping out
from the cesspool that is Cheney world.

GO DAVID A. SMITH!!!

Waxman, Dorgan and Boxer will be all over this!
YES!
YES!
YES!

BHN

[BeHereNow]

3. K&R!!!

Keep this puppy kicked and recommended folks!
AND welcome to DU, David A. Smith!
:loveya: :yourock: :loveya:
BHN

[savemefromdumbya]

8. Dorgan is investigating Halliburton's waste

I was listening to CSPAN on the car radio the other day and I was shocked by the waste and fraudulent activity Halliburton has carried out in Iraq (and presumably other places!).

perhaps phone your senators on this one?

[northzax]

11. I don't understand what's wonderful?

an attorney asked a subject of a federal investigation to explain his behaviour leading up to the charges? isn't that kind of their job?

really, maybe there's something here, but if Mr. Smith has more cards to play (And he needs to) then let's see them (or the emails, perhaps?) this looks meaningless to me.

[CorpGovActivist]

18. Healthy Skepticism

Northzax -

I think you missed the point. The Halliburton attorney wasn't asking the "other" David Smith to explain his behavior. He was asking the Tax Group that the "other" David Smith heads to prepare a fig leaf of an excuse for the untaxed, offshore source of the bribe money.

Have you been following the TSKJ investigations outside the U.S (e.g., in France)?

Best,

- Dave

[BeHereNow]

29. The "wonderful" I was referring to was the fact

that they sent the email to the WRONG David Smith.
How delicious that is to ponder...especially the vision
of them realizing it after the fact.
I repeat, "wonderful," deliciously wonderful.
BHN

[whistle]

2. I wish we could find some ex-Carlyle Group investor to blow the

...whistle on that fascist organization.

[BeHereNow]

5. THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD...

Cheney, Bush Sr. and Carlucci are the head
of the fish- we need to shine the search light
of truth on them.
Every branch of EVIL that grows from them
will wither and die of attrition if we can expose
them for the maggot infested fish heads that
they are.
BHN

[blossomstar]

23. Well said! I will remember that "The Fish Rots from the Head" Thanks.

[Robbien]

4. Interesting. I hope this really goes somewhere

and doesn't get bogged down and hiddened like so many of the other suits.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. I Can't Get Any Of The Links To Work.

I really want to read them, this sounds like important stuff.

[mia]

7. Here's a good one.

http://www.halwhistleblowers.org/

The first 2 links didn't work for me either.

[ebayfool]

12. Some of the links were incomplete - try these!

* To see the SEC filing I made:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1269476/000126947606000004/0001269476-06-000004-index.htm

* To see the full text of the letter I sent to Capitol Hill lawmakers (referenced in the AP story and the SEC filing):
http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/092006senateinvestigationrequest.pdf

* Employment contract, signed during Cheney's tenure as CEO:
http://contracts.onecle.com/halliburton/smith.emp.1998.09.29.shtml

* Latest annual report (see under the heading, "Executive Officers of the Registrant," on page 10):
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/000004501206000124/ed10k2005_final.htm

[mia]

16. Thanks for the working links.

The letter to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller spells it all out.

[ebayfool]

17. Happy to help ... I'm going through the pdf files now!

Very interesting reading!

Thanks for putting up the post, I wouldn't have wanted to miss these!

[CorpGovActivist]

22. Thanks for Fixing Those Links

DJMaddox1 -

Thanks for batting clean-up on those. I'll double-check long URLs in the future, to make sure they don't get snipped.

Best,

- Dave

[ebayfool]

31. No prob - they were functional in your original in LBN ...

I got them from there. They were accidentally broken in the transfer to this forum - it happens!

Welcome to DU, btw. You are a valuable addition to the roster of patriotic souls trying to get this train back on track! I'll be keeping 'you & yours' in mind when I'm ticking off my list of those to be kept safe & protected (there's good company there ... my own family is on the list!).

Still absorbing the pdfs & docs in your links - just wow! You certainly came upon the proverbial 'fork in the road' - I'm happy you took the open & honorable fork ... though it's undoubtedly the longer & harder path.

Be safe.

[CorpGovActivist]

35. The Road Less Traveled

Robert Frost is a favorite.

: )

- Dave

[northzax]

9. something strange is going on here

This employment contract is remarkably standard and dates from 1998 and was part of the acquisition of Dresser Industries by Halliburton. Unless Mr. Smith hasn't gotten a raise since 1998, and has been working without a contract ever since, this is remarkably irrelevant.

and of course he would be listed in the 10K, if he really is (your links have an annoying tendency to not work. the only one that does is the purported Smith Contract from 98, BTB) he's a senior level executive of the firm. Mr. Smith's SEC filing isn't available at this link, neither is his letter to shareholders. something's funny.

I fail to see how this is anything resembling a story. Somewhat shockingly, the lawyer for a company charged with a criminal offense asked the relevant senior executive to explain what happened. It's what lawyers do.

now, if these emails said "you will lie to investigators" then you might have some interesting things at hand. but honestly, no lawyer expensive enough to be working for halliburton in a federal case would be dumb enough to put that on email. really. They're not dumb, just evil. Unless there is significantly more to this, it's a non-story.

[CorpGovActivist]

20. Thanks for the Questions, Northzak

Northzak -

You wrote: "This employment contract is remarkably standard and dates from 1998 and was part of the acquisition of Dresser Industries by Halliburton."

Glad to know you're so familiar with the acquisition of Dresser Industries. Are you also familiar with the stunning lack of due diligence that went into HAL turning a blind eye to make that acquisition, in spite of the asbestos/mesothelioma liability? Either: (1) Cheney was a stupendously dumb business leader; or (2) Cheney (and the Bushie board of Directors at HAL) made a conscious decision to deliberately acquire that liability - using shareholders' capital to make a bad business deal.

Dresser Industries' longest-serving director? Prescott Bush, father of Bush 41 and grandfather of Bush 43. In 1998 (when Dresser was bought), do you really think the Inner Circle (e.g., Baker Botts) didn't know that then-Governor Bush would be making a run? Might a Dresser bankruptcy discharging all those mesothelioma cases be a political embarrassment for the same family that had such a big role in the savings & loan crisis? (Or have you forgotten about the Resolution Trust Corp. bailout?)

"Unless Mr. Smith hasn't gotten a raise since 1998, and has been working without a contract ever since, this is remarkably irrelevant."

Its relevance is at least twofold: (1) it shows the sort of executive management team that Cheney surrounded himself with while at Halliburton (as if Scooter Libby doesn't make the point nowadays); and (2) it shows the current CEO, Dave Lesar, as the counterparty signatory - putting Mr. Lesar squarely in the hot seat when it comes to answering for the tax status of the bribe money paid in Nigeria.

"and of course he would be listed in the 10K, if he really is (your links have an annoying tendency to not work. the only one that does is the purported Smith Contract from 98, BTB) he's a senior level executive of the firm. Mr. Smith's SEC filing isn't available at this link, neither is his letter to shareholders. something's funny."

Sorry for the links problem. Please let me know if you continue to have difficulty following them. But instead of rushing to the conclusion that "something's funny," how about cutting a break for a new user of this message board? Sometimes it just takes a while to figure out the conventions of a new service, that's all.

"I fail to see how this is anything resembling a story. Somewhat shockingly, the lawyer for a company charged with a criminal offense asked the relevant senior executive to explain what happened. It's what lawyers do."

There's a great deal more to it than that - since you couldn't read the primary documents (due to my bad links), I surmise you didn't have those primary documents in front of you when writing the above.

"now, if these emails said 'you will lie to investigators' then you might have some interesting things at hand. but honestly, no lawyer expensive enough to be working for halliburton in a federal case would be dumb enough to put that on email. really. They're not dumb, just evil. Unless there is significantly more to this, it's a non-story."

Not all those working for the Empire are evil geniuses. Some of the stormtroopers routinely bump their heads on the door. The Halliburton lawyer who sent the original e-mail thought he'd included only the trusted inner circle; all cc'ed recipients naturally assumed he'd included only those in the trusted inner circle, and began replying to all based on that assumption.

The candor was pretty shocking.

As for producing the e-mails: (1) if I were to produce what I purport to be true and exact copies of what I received, then: (A) Karl Rove and Co. would waste no time in saying that there is a "chain of custody" problem; and/or (B) the company could accuse me of taking copies of confidential or privileged correspondence ... however, (2) if those exact same e-mails were obtained under warrant by the proper authorities, directly from the backup tapes of the company itself, then neither (A) nor (B) would hold water.

Hope that helps dispel some of the (healthy) skepticism. Good observations and questions.

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton)

[DoYouEverWonder]

33. From what we are seeing in some of the other investigations

it is amazing what people will reveal in emails. They seem to quickly forget that once you email something, because of the nature of the internet, multiple copies end up storied in various places that those emails can easily come back to haunt you or turn up has evidence in court.

[JDPriestly]

10. Some links did not work for me.

[ebayfool]

13. Links are fixed in post #12 n/t

[CorpGovActivist]

14. Thanks, Mia

Anyone having trouble following the links, just shoot me an e-mail at [e-mail].

Please keep my family and me in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post updates on both HALwhistleblowers.org (already up, soon to be fully live) and BushBunglesBrigade.org (up by tomorrow - taking a look at such Bush Bunglers as Santorum, Allen, and Burns).

Best to all,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, the VP of Tax at Halliburton)

P.S. Yes, attorneys expensive enough to work for Halliburton really were stupid enough to make that mistake. The explanation is simple: if you were sending me e-mail from ***outside*** the company, I was [e-mail] (fifth in order). If you were e-mailing me from ***inside*** the company, I was listed first in the internal address book, by dint of my middle initial (Smith, David A). See also this Google search, revealing the numeric system used to distinguish the various Halliburton David Smiths: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=[e-mail]%22

[ms liberty]

15. Thank you for your courage...

It's people like you that will save this country from the rapacious oligarchs - if it can still be done, if it's not too late!

I admire you for standing up. I welcomed you to DU in the other thread, but I'll do it again here:

Welcome to DU! Hope you like it here!

[mia]

19. You're welcome, Dave.

You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers - stay safe!

Mia

[CorpGovActivist]

21. Duck Guns' Range?

Mia -

Thanks!

Do you happen to know the range on those duck-hunting shotguns?

I hear Dick is a lousy shot.

: )

- Dave

[cpamomfromtexas]

24. Stay Safe and talk to the media NOW

You'll be safer if everyone knows who you are!

[mia]

25. It's a good thing he is,

but hip-waders aren't a bad idea for anyone within range of government muck.

[fooj]

32. Dave...you give me hope.

Thank you...

[Justice Is Comin]

26. If you leave fish in a wrapper long enough

eventually the smell will get out.

America always eventually lands on its feet. And people like this are why. Thank you David.

[BeHereNow]

27. If the truth of this criminal cabal ever gets out, Watergate will pale

in comparison.

Without doubt, these are the most corrupt and treasonous
bastards to ever hit the world stage.

GO Dave!
America is ready to awaken from its slumber...
The people KNOW something is dreadfully wrong,
they are just not sure "what" yet.

BHN

[freeplessinseattle]

28. This gave me the chills. revolution is in the air!

what a privilege to be visited by a true hero!!

[BeHereNow]

30. I don't know if Americans have the courage for a revolution...

I hope so, but at the very least, they are starting to
realize that their country has been hijacked by corporate
mulit national criminals who don't give a crap about them.
That's a start.
BHN

[CorpGovActivist]

34. Independent Counsel

Just a quick update. (I apologize in advance for not being able to respond to everyone personally.)

At least two major media outlets are now doing their fact-checking for a more in-depth look at this story. I have received notice from others associated with the story that they have been contacted to confirm their role. If/when something runs, I'll be sure to post notice here.

Meanwhile, here's a synopsis of the coverage so far: http://www.google.com/search?q=halliburton+nigeria+probe+OR+investigate+OR+investigation+%22david+a.+smith%22&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&filter=0

(If that long URL doesn't work, I'll try to fix it.)

How can you help?

1. Call your local radio station (e.g., NPR), newspaper, and/or television station. Tell them you have something you'd like to fax/e-mail to their newsroom. The SEC filing and letter to Capitol Hill lawmakers are located here:

* SEC filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/000126947606000004/0001269476-06-000004-index.htm

* Letter to Capitol Hill lawmakers: http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/092006senateinvestigationrequest.pdf

2. Call your local Member of Congress and your state's United States Senator (regardless of party affiliation), and demand an investigation:

* House: http://www.house.gov
* Senate: http://www.senate.gov

3. Call your local progressive candidate for Federal office (regardless of party affiliation - after all, some of those mavericks, moderates, and "RHINOs" are going to be key in breaking down the stonewall), and provide them the materials.

Public policy and politics are not spectator sports - they're meant to be participatory. The Founders used Committees of Correspondence to organize and coordinate - but they didn't just read each other's letters; they acted on the shared intelligence. If they were alive today, we'd have Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin blogging about Bunker Hill (with embedded photos of the "whites of their eyes").

We've got better tools than the Founding Mothers and Fathers - so we should be more effective against tyrannical Georges, right?

; )

Finally, for those who aren't familiar with how to find pending Federal requests for proposals, or Federal contract awards, check out this site: http://www.fedbizopps.gov/

1. In the upper left-hand corner, click on "Find Business Opportunities".

2. Click the "Both" radio button under "Documents to Search".

3. In the Full Text Search box, type any search string you like (e.g., Halliburton, KBR, Kellogg, Landmark Graphics, Dresser, etc.).

4. For more limited searches, you can use the narrowing functions further down the page to restrict your search to contract "Awards," or to limit your search to only one particular agency (e.g., DoD).

Among the currently-pending solicitations is a "Sources Sought" notice - seeking a firm capable of performing a "special audit" of the settlement between KBR and the U.S. Government: http://www.fbo.gov/servlet/Documents/R/1445399

Best to all, and I'll continue to post updates here and on my websites (the placeholders up now will soon be replaced; anyone with graphics know-how, please contact me):

* HALwhistleblowers.org
* BushBunglesBrigade.org

Cheers!

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton)

[CorpGovActivist]

36. One More Way You Can Help

One more way you can help:

Call up the PR and IR spin doctors that Halliburton uses as spokesflaks, and ask them to confirm:

1. That on Friday, July 23, 2004, the FBI demanded backup tapes of my e-mail account and the "other" David Smith's e-mail account. Ask them if the company turned those over or not, and if not, why not.

2. That the "other" David Smith would be in a position to confirm or deny whether untaxed, offshore money was used by the "rogue" Halliburton executives who were involved in the Nigerian bribes. Ask how the company's "robust" internal accounting controls didn't catch that expenditure.

Cathy Mann essentially called me a liar in last week's stories - and suggested that I had filed a false report with the Feds. Since she's so sure of herself and the denials she's spoon-feeding the media, she ought to be able to confirm or deny the above. (The prospect of seeing her take the Fifth in congressional hearings, once push comes to shove, comes to mind.) To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes: "Certitude is not the same thing as rectitude - especially when speaking with spokesflaks who keep their families fed by toeing the company line."

Cathy G. Mann
Director, Communications
5 Houston Center
1401 McKinney St., Suite 2400
Houston, TX 77010
(p) 713.759.2605
[e-mail]

Corporate
Melissa Norcross
Public Relations Supervisor
1401 McKinney St., Suite 2400
Houston, TX 77010
(p) 713.759.2608
[e-mail]

North America
Zelma Branch
Public Relations
10200 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, Texas 77072
(p) 281.988.2557
[e-mail]


Evelyn Angelle
Vice President –
Investor Relations
5 Houston Center
1401 McKinney, Suite 2400
Houston, TX 77010
(p) 713.759.2688
[e-mail]

Be polite, don't berate them, and let us know what they have to say. This is why they get paid the big bucks.

Best,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, VP of Tax for Halliburton)

[Beetwasher]

37. You Will Get Major Support From This Community!

You've come to the right place. WELCOME!!!

Please keep us updated and please do not hesitate in the least to let us know everything and anything you need.

[petunia.here]

38. Wow, thank you!

Interesting read and very courageous of you to step up and speak out.

[CorpGovActivist]

39. Grass Roots Marketing for BUNGLED

If you read as far as the footnotes in my letter to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, then you know that I've developed a new twist on an old classic - BUNGLED (winners cry out "Bush Bungled!").

Instead of letters and numbers on the playing cards, oft-uttered phrases from the Bush Bungles Brigade (e.g., Tony Snow, Condi, Rummy, Karen Hughes, Dick, etc.) occupy the game card spaces.

The free space - the "gimmee" - is the word NOOK-YOO-LAR.

I need help coming up with enough of the Orwellian words, phrases, and terms of art that the Administration flaks frequently use.

Suggestions?

Pre-orders for the print version of the game are being taken now. The online version of the game will allow friends around the country (and around the globe) set up a game (with each player pledging money and naming a non-profit of choice, and the winner of the game getting "winner take all" on donating the pot to his/her non-prof of choice). I've earmarked 50% of all gross sales between now and the mid-terms to be donated to non-profits/organizations with a progressive bent.

Serious and humorous game card phrase suggestions are welcome. For details, see footnote 6 of my letter to Capitol Hill lawmakers last week: http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/092006senateinvestigationrequest.pdf

See also: http://shop.bushbunglesbrigade.org

Feel free to e-mail the suggestions. I have had friends and family noodling on this for a while, but the more terms we have, the more game cards we can generate (with planned special editions focusing on one specific spokesflak - e.g., Rummy's Self-Soliloquies edition, mocking his press "briefings").

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand." -- Mark Twain

"And yet, the Bushies keep handing us more ammunition for the assault." -- David A. Smith

; )

Best to all,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with the curiously-quiet David R. Smith, VP of Tax for Halliburton)

[CorpGovActivist]

40. The KBR Spinoff: A Texas Two-Step

When Dick Cheney agreed to acquire Dresser Industries in 1998 (reportedly negotiated over a weekend of quail hunting), did he do so to hush up the Bush Family's Shame - namely, Prescott Bush's role in the Dresser asbestos tragedy?

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/0000045012-98-000009.txt

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040216fa_fact

After all, Prescott Bush - Bush 41's daddy and Bush 43's granddaddy (and benefactor, if all those buried run-ins Bush 43 had with the cops in New Haven are any indication) - was the longest-serving Director of Dresser Industries (the former Connecticut Senator sat on Dresser's Board of Directors for 22 years). Bush 41 himself worked for Dresser from 1948 to 1951. Prescott was a Director from 1930 until 1952 (and his position as a Director had nothing to do, of course, with Bush 41's paid position; nepotism? what's that?)...

Now, why would Dick Cheney be in such an all-fire rush to acquire Dresser (and Dresser's recently-acquired unit, M.W. Kellogg, which later got merged into Brown & Root to form KBR) in 1998?

Could it be that Cheney and the Bush Inner Circle knew that "our boy George" would be running for the GOP nomination in 2000? Could it be that the emerging mesothelioma cases threatened to bankrupt Dresser - right when Curious George would be making his run, which would invite unwanted media attention?

Now, that sort of embarrassment for the Bush candidacy just wouldn't do, would it? If only - if only - there were a big pile of money lying around somewhere that could be used to quietly and privately bail out Dresser (at least until after the election is over), to keep this out of the headlines.

That big pile of money was the Halliburton stockholders' capital. Cheney (and the Bushie Buddies on the Board of Halliburton) made that sweetheart deal in 1998 for political reasons, not for business reasons with the stockholders' best interests at heart. To some, that's known as "breach of fiduciary duties of loyalty and care," but to Bushies, it's known as "business as usual."

Old timers from Brown & Root used to say all the time that it was well-known within the company that the promise had been made that - if Curious George won the election - the Administration would more than make it up to Halliburton by steering contracts its way.

The only problem was - after Bush was elected, and after Kenny Boy Lay screwed things up by awakening Americans to these sorts of insider deals - KBR was much harder to get rid of. So Halliburton used the bankruptcy courts to curtail the Dresser/KBR liability (while the Administration passed bankruptcy reform to prevent divorced mothers from discharging debt to get a new start).

The final planned step of this Texas Two-Step has always been to get rid of this radioactive unit. It was just a matter of timing.

On April 14th of this year, Halliburton announced its intent to spin off KBR.

I immediately called the company. On April 17th, I spoke with an attorney in Halliburton's in-house legal unit. Curiously, the plan got put on life support.

Last week, I filed my SEC filing. The next day, the KBR spinoff was defibrilated (see the dates of those three filings):

http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=kbr&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany

The Halliburton attorney with whom I spoke was Jim Bullock. My records indicate that we spoke for 30 minutes on April 17th.

Don't let this Texas Two-Step happen. Call Waxman's office, call your local Member of Congress and Senators, and call Halliburton IR (especially if you're a shareholder). If you're not already a Halliburton shareholder, think about becoming one. The more progressive-minded shareholders who call HAL (and/or show up at the next shareholders' meeting to insist that Lesar give forthright answers), the better.

Best of luck to all,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, the curiously-quiet VP of Tax at Halliburton)

[Raffi Ella]

41. Welcome!

:patriot:

[CorpGovActivist]

42. Today's SEC Filing

FYI, I filed the following today:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/000126947606000005/0001269476-06-000005-index.htm

Best to all,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with the curiously-quiet David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton)

[CorpGovActivist]

43. Second SEC Filing (Thanks, Footnoted.org!!!)

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45012/000126947606000006/0001269476-06-000006-index.htm

See also: http://www.footnoted.org/spreading-like-kudzu

Best of luck to all,

- David A. Smith ("Dave")
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, the VP of Tax at Halliburton)